OnePlus 3T Setup: Tips and App Suggestions to Get the Most out of Your Device

The OnePlus 3 and 3T are have become some of the most developer-friendly devices of their generation, but even with such a wide array of ROMs and Mods available it’s easy to get stuck in the same routine when it comes to setting up your device. Having used many of the ROMs available for the 3T, this is my set up.

The first and arguably most important choice is of course which ROM to use, currently, I have been daily driving Freedom OS. The most appealing part of this ROM is the inclusion of Aroma installer. Aroma was developed by Recognized Developer amarullz and is an ingenious installation wizard that opens during flashing through your chosen recovery (TWRP). The following pages take you through a wide array of mods and apps you can install prior to booting. Using, this I installed my preferred GApps, Magisk, and Substratum and proceeded to boot. Aroma installer took care of setting up, Magisk leaving me with the simple task of enabling Magisk Hide within the app settings, which was all that was needed on my part to pass SafetyNet and be able to use Android Pay again. Moving on to more aesthetic changes, I changed the system theme to Dark

and display size to the minimum in order to maximize screen usage. Next, I installed Action Launcher 3, and as I prefer a clean home screen I removed all widgets, icons and the Google Search bar. I then set up the app dock to house my five most used apps and change the icon pack to Lines. The app drawer was changed to a list that slides out from the left, and on AL3’s quick page I set up media controls including Google Play Music’s widget and SoundHound ∞. All color options for AL3 were changed to black with white text.

For wallpapers, I use the app Backdrops, which has a huge range of great looking apps including a community section. The app does include optional paid “Collections” for £0.89 one of these collections is designed with AMOLED displays in mind — these predominantly-black wallpapers look great on the 3T and really work well with the Lines icon pack mentioned earlier. If you are looking for homescreen inspiration, then a great place to start is over at Twitter, where each week many XDA users share screenshots and resources for their homescreen setups via #homescreensaturdays.

Android 7.0 Nougat brought with it the Quick Settings API, this allows developers to add their apps and toggles to the quick setting panel in the notification tray. Recognized Developer Rascarlo has since published his app to the forum which adds an additional 49 quick settings tiles for you to choose from including app shortcuts, screen timeouts, multi-window and immersive mode. Regardless of your device, if you are running Android 7.0 or above then you should certainly take a few minutes to try out this app and customize your quick settings.

For media content, I have a variety of apps from both XDA Labs and the Play Store that serve my needs well. For local content I use VLC which is open source and can handle a huge array of file types. For casting content to my Nvidia Sheld TV, I use a brilliant app from the forums called LocalCast which supports both local, web and cloud storage options. If you have a Chromecast or Android TV, this app is simply a must have. The Plex app allows for me to access video content from my PC and has some great features including automatically adding media artwork, trailers, and descriptions. Finally, my file manager of choice is the ever-popular Solid Explorer, as this feature-packed Material Design app has almost everything the power user requires to manage their files. Solid Explorer is one of the most comprehensive file explorers on the Play Store at the moment with support for a huge number of cloud services, a built in FTP server, and multiple windows.

It is common knowledge that AMOLED displays look great when displaying black, which is why Limbo, a dark adventure game really stands out from the crowd when it comes to gaming on the 3T, the inky blacks produced by the screen are perfect for lending atmosphere to an already superbly developed indie game.

There is no one setup that will work for everyone, each user has their own needs and requirements. While I put a lot of emphasis on maximizing the potential of my device’s display, dark themes are certainly not for everyone. An ever increasing number of apps are adding optional dark modes and Team Black Out are helping to alter those apps that don’t support it natively, however if you prefer a more colorful device then mods such as Substratum can go a long way to adding some color to your 3T.

What is your Android setup like? Leave a comment below!

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